The Problem With Overdecorating And How To Fix It

Did you know most home decorators tend to “overdecorate” their homes? It’s not surprising. Many of us fill our rooms with pretty things and sentimental treasures, but often we simply have too much. And too much does not equal a curated or beautiful room. Today, let’s talk about the overdecorating dilemma and how to easily solve it.

Even if you are tempted to think, “Oh, this post isn’t for me,” keep reading. You may not usually overdecorate, but chances are you have a few corners, tabletops, or shelves that are weighed down with too many accessories. That extra “stuff” can keep a room from looking pulled together and stylish.

We are all drawn to those beautifully curated rooms we see in magazines, on Pinterest, and on blogs. They make us wonder why our own spaces do not quite measure up. The truth is, the problem is not that we cannot decorate, it is often that we decorate with too much.

The good news is that overdecorating is one of the easiest decorating problems to fix. A few simple changes can completely transform the look and feel of your home. These tips made such a difference in my own spaces, and I know they will do the same for yours.ng issues and how to fix them. These tips can significantly change the look of your home! They did mine.

Too Much Clutter

When a room has too much decor, it almost always attracts clutter. And the more decor we pile on, the easier it is to stop noticing the extra “stuff.” Before long, those decorative books, trinkets, and little collections start to blend right in with everyday clutter. It all becomes one big jumble that weighs a room down.

Most of us have at least one spot in our home that is meant to be both functional and decorative but ends up being the perfect place for clutter to land. Think about a console table, a bookshelf, or a coffee table. Instead of being beautifully styled, they often become clutter catchers.

In my home, the foyer is the biggest culprit. It is a natural drop zone for mail, packages, coats, and shoes. The problem is that nothing about that kind of clutter looks pretty or intentional. And no matter how much decorating I do, clutter always steals the show.

The Easy Fix For Clutter

The best way to keep clutter at bay is to deal with it right away. In my foyer, I keep the decor simple and minimal so that anything out of place stands out immediately. That makes it easy to put things back where they belong. When clutter is handled the moment it appears, it never has a chance to take over.

Another important step is to edit your decor. If you have a tendency to add new pieces often, try this simple trick: each time you bring something new into a room, remove one item. Editing is one of the most effective ways to keep a space looking intentional instead of overcrowded.

Flat surfaces are often the worst offenders. Coffee tables, kitchen counters, nightstands, and entryway tables naturally invite clutter. Once a little pile appears, it seems to multiply. Be on guard, and the second you see clutter collecting, take care of it. A tidy surface is the best defense against overdecorating and a cluttered look.

You might like to see this very informative and useful post HOW TO DECLUTTER YOUR HOME IN 15 MINUTES A DAY.

And here’s THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO CLEANING AND DECLUTTERING YOUR HOME, a huge post filled with what you need to know about for a clean and organized home!

OVERDECORATING WITH TOO MUCH FURNITURE

Knowing the right furniture for a room is important, but knowing how much furniture to use is just as critical. One of the most common decorating mistakes is trying to fill every wall, corner, and open spot with a piece of furniture. Rooms rarely need that much.

Every space in your home should have room to breathe. Too many chairs, tables, or cabinets can suffocate the beauty of a room and make it feel crowded. The truth is, empty space is just as important as the furniture itself.

Decorators call this negative space. It is the pause that allows your eyes to rest and take in what is beautiful. Without negative space, a room looks busy and unsettled. With it, your eyes can focus on what matters and enjoy the flow of the room.

Think of negative space as an important design element that works quietly in the background to create calm and balance. A well-decorated room always includes it.

See WHY SPACE IS IMPORTANT IN DESIGN. It is a valuable post about how to use space to add beauty to your home.

THE EASY FIX FOR TOO MUCH FURNITURE

The best cure for overdecorating with furniture is to simply take something out. If a room feels crowded, start by removing one piece. Sometimes you may need to edit even more.

Rearranging furniture can also make a big difference. Pieces need the right placement so the room feels balanced and welcoming. Give your furniture space to breathe, and let each piece play its part without overwhelming the room.

In our home, the dining room is really more of a small dining area. When we first moved in, I added a bar cart to the corner because I had always wanted one. But the longer I looked at the space, the more I realized it just was not working. Instead of adding charm, the bar cart looked busy and distracted from the dining table, which should always be the focal point.

Once I removed the bar cart, the whole room felt lighter and more inviting.

Just editing furnishings and other things will make our rooms look so much nicer. Overdecorating is our natural default decorating mode. We need to be aware of how to edit that urge as well.

LESS IS BEST DECORATING is a very helpful post filled with sensible and savvy tips and ideas for decorating our homes.

ARE YOU A MAGPIE OR COPYCAT

If you love decorating, you may be a bit of a magpie, a copycat, or both.

A magpie is a bird said to love shiny, pretty things. It swoops down, collects them, and gathers more than it needs. People who decorate like magpies are drawn to pretty things too. That is not a bad thing until all those finds come home.

When HomeGoods first came to our town, it was like a decorating wonderland for me. Honestly, I was euphoric. Every aisle was filled with beautiful treasures, and before long my cart was overflowing. The problem was not that the items were not pretty. They were. But once I got them home, they did not always look good with what I already had. My rooms ended up with lots of pretty things that did not always work together.

Now let’s talk about the copycat decorator. The name comes from the way kittens learn by copying their mothers. In decorating, it is about seeing what others are doing in their homes and trying to recreate it. Copycat decorators are often drawn to the latest trends. There is nothing wrong with being inspired by what is popular. The problem comes when every new trend is added without editing. The result is often a room that quickly looks outdated.

Trends can be a huge trap. I have been decorating for decades, and I still love them. But over the years I have learned how to enjoy trends without letting them take over my home.

THE EASY FIX FOR MAGPIE AND COPYCAT ROOMS

The answer to magpie and copycat decorating is simple. You need to know your decorating style. When you are true to your style, it is much easier to resist the pull of every new or pretty thing that comes along.

The key is to have a clear, consistent definition of your style. Many of us say we know our style, but we have not taken the time to really define it. Without that working knowledge, it is easy to think that every shiny accessory or new trend will make our homes look amazing.

Once you know your style, everything you bring into your home should work with it and with your color palette. For example, my home is Transitional. It is updated traditional with just a touch of farmhouse and French influence. My color palette is what I call “Blond,” which means rich neutrals, warm caramels, and lots of white.

Because I know my style, I can walk through HomeGoods and enjoy all the pretty things without feeling the need to take them home. There is joy in browsing and appreciating without buying. Knowing your style also gives you a laser-focused decorating eye. You can quickly spot the pieces that truly belong in your home and will create lasting beauty.

You might like to read HOW TO KNOW YOUR DECORATING STYLE. It will help you to know your style and avoid overdecorating.

OBSESSION WITH ONE

One style. One era. One color. One category of decor. One wood finish. One object you just cannot resist. When we get too focused on one decorating “thing,” we often keep filling our homes with more and more of it, thinking it will make our rooms look interesting.

The result is usually the opposite. A room filled with only one thing often looks flat and uninspired. Think about the dreaded mistake of being too matchy-matchy, where everything in the room is the same style and color. Or a home filled with nothing but farmhouse decor, Mid-Century Modern, or 18th-century antiques. Instead of looking curated, it can feel like a display in a furniture showroom or museum.

Wood finishes can also fall into this category. During my 18th-century phase, I had all red-toned wood in almost every room. It was not inspiring, and it made my spaces feel heavy.

Collections fit here as well. They are wonderful to have, but when you keep adding to them without editing, they can overwhelm a room. We often become “decor blind” when too much of the same thing is around us. Our eyes stop registering it, so we keep adding more.

For me, that “one thing” is baskets. I love them and have them everywhere. They are pretty, textural, and functional, and I think they are decor perfection. But I have to remind myself that too much of a good thing is still too much.

THE EASY FIX FOR ONE THING OBSESSIONS

The cure for having too much of one thing in a room is balance. A well-decorated room is a mix of styles, colors, finishes, and objects. True beauty is found in the way different things work together.

Here’s an oversimplified decorating rule of thumb for just about decorating anything …

60-30-10

Yvonne @ stoneGable

One simple rule of thumb that works in almost any decorating situation is 60-30-10. It is an easy way to think about how much of each element belongs in a room.

• Sixty percent is your primary element. This might be the main color, the overall style, or the dominant wood or metal finish.
• Thirty percent is your secondary element. This should support the first, adding variety without competing with it.
• Ten percent is your accent. This is the finishing touch that adds personality and interest without overwhelming the rest.

For example:

• Sixty percent New Traditional, thirty percent Modern Farmhouse, and ten percent French Country.
• Sixty percent Transitional accents, thirty percent trendy accents, and ten percent baskets.

The ratio can shift slightly—sometimes 70-20-10 works better—but remembering 60-30-10 will help keep balance in your home.

Decorating is part science and part art. The 60-30-10 rule is the math behind what feels pleasing to the eye, and it is also a good guard against overdecorating.

You might like to read how REPEATING ELEMENTS in a room makes it look more attractive.

THE TOO MANY LAYERS OVERDECORATING DILEMMA

One of the easiest ways to spot overdecorating is by looking at how a room is layered. If I have to look through layer after layer of decor on a mantel, a coffee table, or even a sofa, then that space is probably overdecorated.

Many of us add extra layers to hide decorating insecurities. It feels safer to keep piling on, thinking the more we add, the better the result will be. But more layers rarely make a room look professional or attractive. In fact, too much usually looks cluttered and distracting.

I am so guilty of this when it comes to pillows. I love them because I love fabric, texture, and pattern. Textiles make me swoon, so I tend to pile pillows everywhere. The problem is that sometimes the sofa almost disappears under them. That is definitely overdecorating. I have learned that my living room looks much prettier when I use a lighter hand with pillows.

The same idea applies to patterns. A little pattern mixing can be beautiful, but too many competing patterns in one room can feel busy and unsettled. Unless you are a very advanced decorator, less really is more when it comes to layering.

THE QUICK FIX FOR TOO MANY LAYERS

This is such an easy, but sometimes painful, fix. Stop adding so many layers.

Choose quality and beauty over quantity and stuff. This is a decorating rule worth following. My decorating has improved over the years mostly because I have learned to embrace this rule, even when it feels uncomfortable.

If you love to layer, scaling back will feel strange at first. Rooms may look a little bare to your eye, and you might feel like you forgot something. But you probably didn’t. What you are doing is retraining your decorating instincts. You are learning to choose the better option instead of the extra option. That is the key to avoiding overdecorating.

The post LESS IS BEST will really help you when it comes to overlayering decor.

You might also like 10 ELEMENTS OF A VIGNETTE to help you create beautiful vignettes without overdecorating.

Also, HOW TO STYLE A MANTEL will help you create a balanced mantel with just the right amount of decor.

THE FAKE CURATED LOOK

ou have probably heard the saying, “good decorating takes time.” It is true. But we live in a world that craves instant gratification. We want a beautiful, finished room right away, even when it comes to creating a curated look.

The very idea of curation goes against quick and all-at-once decorating. To curate a room means to carefully choose what belongs in it, piece by piece, over time. Every detail is tested, edited, and refined. That kind of layered beauty cannot be rushed.

Most of the time I can tell when a room has been decorated by an interior designer. Everything is perfectly placed and works together, but often those rooms lack the warmth and personality of the people who live there. And that is such a shame.

A curated room is collected over time. That is why the rooms we try to decorate in a week, a month, or even a year often fall short. We may try to fake the curated look by overdecorating, piling in more and more decor, but that rarely works.

The beauty of curation is in collecting the best and editing out the rest. And that simply takes time.

THE FIX FOR THE FAKE CURATED LOOK

The fix is simple, but it takes patience. Give yourself the time to decorate a room. Resist the urge to run out and buy things just to fill up empty spaces. Let your rooms evolve.

When we rush, we usually end up with a room full of stuff instead of a room that feels collected and beautiful.

Here is how my living room looked when we first moved into our Tanglewood House.

When we moved into our Tanglewood House, my living room was far from finished. It has taken 18 months to get it to where it is today, and I am still adding and editing. I know it will continue to change in the next six months and even the next year. That is the beauty of decorating slowly.

The most important thing is not to hurry the process or try to fake a curated look by overdecorating. A truly curated home comes from editing, choosing wisely, and giving each room time to become what it should be.

Overdecorating is such a common decorating mistake, but the good news is that it can be fixed. And once you recognize the tendency to overdecorate, you will start making better choices that lead to beautiful, welcoming rooms.

So here is my challenge for you: walk through your home and take a good look at each room. Can you spot areas where you may be overdecorating? Use these easy fixes to edit, balance, and curate. Small changes will make a big difference in how your home looks and feels.